Overview

BRILLIANT. MAJESTIC. VIBRANT.

Join us for a dazzling seven-opera season! With international stars, an American premiere, and impeccable performances, you'll see what makes HGO an important voice on the world's musical stage. And you can see it all for as little as $15 a ticket!

Memory can comfort, torment-even terrify-but it is always with
us. As Faulkner wrote, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even
past."

The horrors of the Second World War, still raw today, were fresh
in 1959 when Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz wrote a play titled
The Passenger from Cabin 45 for Polish radio. The
play became the basis of the opera by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in
1967.

En route to a new post with her husband, a German diplomat, Lisa
is unnerved by the sight of a woman-another passenger-who eerily
resembles Martha, one of the inmates Lisa tormented when she was an
SS overseer at Auschwitz.

The action of the drama takes us from the stylish gentility of a
luxury liner's deck to the squalor of a death camp where cruelty,
despair, and unspeakable courage are evident in equal measure. This
American premiere will be one of the most important musical events
of the year.

"A shattering coup. It is at times like this that opera's
synthesis of music and drama works its most powerful spell." -
The Sunday Times (London)

"Rarely has such a unity of emotion been experienced in an opera
house." - Frankfurter Allgemeine (Frankfurt am Main,
Germany)

Join us for a dazzling seven-opera season! With international stars, an American premiere, and impeccable performances, you'll see what makes HGO an important voice on the world's musical stage. And you can see it all for as little as $15 a ticket!

Memory can comfort, torment-even terrify-but it is always with
us. As Faulkner wrote, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even
past."

The horrors of the Second World War, still raw today, were fresh
in 1959 when Auschwitz survivor Zofia Posmysz wrote a play titled
The Passenger from Cabin 45 for Polish radio. The
play became the basis of the opera by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in
1967.

En route to a new post with her husband, a German diplomat, Lisa
is unnerved by the sight of a woman-another passenger-who eerily
resembles Martha, one of the inmates Lisa tormented when she was an
SS overseer at Auschwitz.

The action of the drama takes us from the stylish gentility of a
luxury liner's deck to the squalor of a death camp where cruelty,
despair, and unspeakable courage are evident in equal measure. This
American premiere will be one of the most important musical events
of the year.

"A shattering coup. It is at times like this that opera's
synthesis of music and drama works its most powerful spell." -
The Sunday Times (London)

"Rarely has such a unity of emotion been experienced in an opera
house." - Frankfurter Allgemeine (Frankfurt am Main,
Germany)

Ticketed Productions at HGO: Tickets are available for purchase online until 4 p.m. CST on the day of the performance (Noon CST on the day of a matinee performance). Please call our Customer Care Center at 713-228-OPERA (6737) or 800-62-OPERA (800-626-7372) if you have questions or have other ticketing needs. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the HGO box office located at 550 Prairie Street. Box office hours during HGO Season Repertory: Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday–Noon to curtain (performance days only).

How Many Seats? Groups of ten or more receive discounts and special seating! Please call 713-546-0248 or e-mail groups@HoustonGrandOpera.org to learn more about Group Sales.

All sales are final. If the performance includes an intermission, latecomers will be seated during that time based on the house staff and ushers’ discretion. The use of cameras or recording devices is strictly forbidden at HGO performances. Dates, casting and programs are subject to change without notice.